This invention relates generally to routers and router accessories and relates more particularly to a guide device for attachment to a hand-held router for guiding the movement of the router along a desired cutting path.
The type of router with which this invention is concerned includes a housing capable of being manipulated across a workpiece with the hands, a motor mounted within the housing and a rotatable bit-like cutting tool operatively coupled to the motor so as to extend from one end of the housing. When using the router, the router is moved across a workpiece with its cutting tool in cutting engagement therewith so that the rotation of the tool is substantially perpendicular to the direction of movement of the router across the workpiece.
The type of guide device with which this invention is to be compared is attached to a router of the aforedescribed type to facilitate the guiding of the router across a relatively thin workpiece so as to sever the workpiece along a cutting path and so that the cutting path corresponds with a preselected edge of an object underlying the workpiece. For example, in an application in which a flat surface, such as a table top, is desired to be covered by two pieces of thin, relatively rigid sheets of plastic laminate material, neither of which is large enough to completely cover the table top surface, the router and guide are used to cut one of the sheets so that the resulting, i.e., cut, edge of the one sheet can be properly positioned adjacent an edge of the other sheet.
To prepare the sheets for a cutting operation, a first of the sheets is operatively secured in its desired position upon the table top so that a preselected edge of the first sheet extends across the table top, and the second, or remaining, sheet is placed upon the table top so that a portion of the second sheet overlaps the preselected edge of the first sheet. The guide device is attached to the router adjacent its cutting tool for movement generally between the first sheet and the overlapping portion of the second sheet while the router housing is directed across the second sheet with its cutting tool in cutting engagement with the second sheet. In order that the resulting edge of the second sheet corresponds to the preselected edge of the first sheet, the guide includes an engagement surface for engaging the edge of the first sheet so that when the router is moved across the second sheet and the guide engagement surface is maintained in sliding engagement with the preselected edge of the first sheet, the cutting tool of the router cuts the second sheet in two along the desired path. Once the overlapping portion of the second sheet has been completely severed from the remainder of the second sheet, the second sheet can be secured to the table top surface so that its resulting, i.e., cut, edge is positioned adjacent the preselected edge of the first sheet.
One limitation associated with a prior art guide device of the aforedescribed type relates to the initiation of a cut in the second sheet along the appropriate cutting path. More specifically, the construction of the prior art device renders it difficult for a user to know, at the outset of a cutting operation, the actual position of the guide relative to the preselected edge of the first sheet so that when the cut is initiated, the cutting tool will advance along the appropriate path. If, of course, the engagement surface of the guide is not accurately positioned against the preselected edge of the first sheet at the outset of a cutting operation, the router will begin its cut along an erroneous path.
Another limitation associated with a conventional guide device of the aforedescribed type relates to the susceptibility of its engagement surface to pivot leftwardly or rightwardly relative to the preselected edge of the underlying first sheet as the router is moved across the second sheet. Such a pivoting of the engagement surface is, of course, undesirable because the pivoting action shifts the cutting tool out of the desired cutting path.
It is, accordingly, an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved guide for a router facilitating the guiding of the router across a workpiece so that the router severs the workpiece along a prescribed cutting path corresponding with an edge of an object underlying the workpiece.
Another object of the present invention is to provide such a guide which circumvents limitations associated with guide devices of the prior art.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide such a guide which is uncomplicated in construction and effective in operation.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a router assembly which includes such a guide.